A Whole Lotta Chicken

As I mentioned earlier, I roasted a chicken this weekend using Pioneer Woman's Lemon Rosemary Chicken recipe. It was a fairly gigantic bird for just the two of us, so we had quite a bit of meat leftover, which is fantastic.  With just a couple hours of effort on Sunday (most of which was spent on the couch waiting for the chicken to roast anyway), it has made planning dinner and lunches for the week a breeze.  If you find yourself with a whole chicken on your hands, here are a few of my favorite ways to keep from wasting all of those leftovers. 

1. For the first evening, do the obvious "Meat and Three" plate (or Meat and Two in this case). Roast your chicken, carve a serving for each of you, and serve it alongside a few vegetables. We opted for steamed green beans and mashed potatoes.

2. We bring a sandwich to work for lunch most days, and a real roasted chicken sandwich is a very welcome change to processed lunch meats. I've been using whole wheat bread, thinly sliced chicken, arugula, provolone, and Miracle Whip (Yeah, I use Miracle Whip sometimes. I make no apologies for my East Texas upbringing).

3. For dinner another night, dice it up and toss it with a green salad, using whatever you can find in your fridge or pantry. I used arugula, carrot, grated parmesan, sunflower seeds, and balsamic vinaigrette.  I served it with some mini pitas and roasted red pepper hummus.

4. Make a batch of chicken salad for another lunch option. I think these two sound fabulous: Italian  Chicken Salad or Wild Rice Chicken Salad

(photo from The Kitchn)

5. Cook up a big pot of chicken noodle soup, using the "extra-easy chicken noodle soup" instructions in the "Additional Notes" at the bottom of this recipe. Already cooked chicken takes this from a fairly quick recipe to a very quick recipe.